This morning's WaPo Health section carried a very interesting article about leprosy AKA Hansen's Disease. This article resonated with me because back in the early 80s, when on post with my family in Mexico City, our Mexican maid, Suzie, was diagnosed with it. It came as a shock that this biblical disease was still around. Indeed it is, and the U.S. has the world's best center for research and treatment in the world, the National Hansen's Disease Clinical Center in Baton Rouge, LA. Some fun facts about this disease:
- 95% of the world's population is thought to be immune to it
- it is actually a neurological disease that comes from a bacteria
- humans and armadillos are the only known animals to contract this disease
- it is not that contagious, but
- it is not known definitively how it is spread
Read the whole article here and more about the disease here.
What happened to Suzie, you ask? Well, we took her for treatment and arranged with a friend to have that treatment continued after we left post. Now, the friend was trustworthy and sympathetic, but unfortunately, Suzie was surrounded by friends and relatives who were superstitious and believed in the "treatments" of the local witch doctors, called curanderos. I don't know what evenually happened to her, but hope that she finished the legitimate medical treatment and did not resort to those purveyors spurious "medicines."
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